Ang Lee, director of the upcoming Marvel Comics film adaptation Hulk, told SCI FI Wire that he sees the movie as an extension of his acclaimed martial-arts drama, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. "This is my new Hidden Dragon," he said in an interview while promoting the film. "American Hidden Dragon, to me. It's pulp art. It has the wildness, the secret pleasure, the aggression that you try to cover up. Only in pulp art [do] you see the psychology of it."
Many were surprised when Lee—whose previous work includes the dramas Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm—signed on to direct the action-heavy Hulk. But the director said that he felt an instant connection to the character. "I call him my new Green Destiny," Lee said, referring to the name of the legendary sword in Crouching Tiger. "He just speaks to me. Usually I don't think too much about story or character. It's the ingredients. If that clicks, I'll devote two years and go through anything, including self-deprecation, to bring the truth into reality."
Lee went so far as to perform the Hulk's facial expressions and movements in motion-capture sessions, so that he could be sure that he was getting exactly what he wanted from the digital character. "In closeups, they shoot me, and video references they can do it by hand. But the full body they have to reference my movement and start from there. Of course, that's just the beginning of the work. Then we have to start adding and adjusting from there. ... Sometimes, after certain [scenes], I thought my head was going to explode." Hulk opens June 20.